How I found out I have CML

On Friday the 30th of March I woke up with pain in my leg, like I had pulled a muscle or something, as the days went on the pain was still there so I dosed up on painkillers and applied ibuprofen gel every day to ease what I thought was a pulled muscle.

Come Sunday the 8th of April I went to bed and I couldn’t get my leg in a comfortable position without it aching, the pain was unreal I was crying and constantly moving around to get settled, this lasted for about an hour when my partner decided he wanted to take me to the hospital this was at 11:45pm.

I hate hospitals so I told him to just call 111 and see what they say so I’m not wasting anyone’s time.

They made an appointment for about 2 hour later and told us to call back if symptoms get any worse or if anything changes, 10 minutes later I lay down trying to settle till my appointment when I just projectile vomited all over, my partner took me to the bathroom where I was sick again, this time it had blood in, in a panic my partner rushed me to the car to take me to the hospital.

We rang 111 to update them on what had happened and they told us to stay where we was and they called for an ambulance (which I didn’t need as I was already on my way!) 

We waited for the ambulance, who showed up in 10 minutes, we explained an ambulance really wasn’t needed and we was already on our way, they told us there is no point moving me when I’m already comfy in the car so I signed some papers to say I had refused the ambulance and that they had done some checks and safe for me to continue in the car.

Once at the hospital we had to wait about an hour or so, which took us to 1:10am I got called through and had some Obs done and some bloods taken.

Then off to assessment ward/room B where we waited an hour and half, so now time is about 2:40am.

A nurse came to assess my leg and feel around, she advised me that they are making sure not got a hip fracture, and that they’ve checked my bloods for any blood clots in my leg, then she said a doctor will be with me in about an hour or so.

Doctor came about 3:45am and told me that he’s now concerned about my bloods as my White Blood Cells are abnormally high!  And that I may need to give some more blood samples.

We waited till 5am then a nurse came in and said I’m to move to a different room as I’m going to be put on a ward soon.

7:20am I got collected and taken up to the Haematology ward and got told won’t he taking anymore blood as they have all they need and just rest til the consultant arrived at 9am to take a look at the blood, so me and my partner just sat and waited (watched some tv)

My mum came up at 9:30am, about 10:15am she was getting ready to go home. A nurse had come in and saw my mum was about to leave and asked “are you mum? Are you leaving” my mum explained that she’d be on a night shift and was going to get some rest and come back later, but the nurse told my mum “the consultant will be up in an hour for a chat, I suggest you stay and hear what is going to be said, you will want to hear this” 

This had us slightly worried so my mum stayed to hear what needed to be said.

An hour later the consultant came in with 3 nurses, he then explained that my White Blood Cells should be an average 10 but mine was sitting at 23/24, which is abnormally high!

Then he went on to tell me that I need to go for a Bone Marrow Biopsy, to test my bones and blood, and that the bone marrow willl be getting Done in 15 minutes (so I didn’t really have time to take it what was going on or how I was truly feeling) he then turned around to my mum and partner and told them “I warn you this can be serious” - I just shut off, my head was all over I didn’t really know what to say.

I went for my Bone Marrow Biopsy, I was so scared and worried that my anxiety had kicked in and I was freaking out ! My partner stood by me and calmed me down and came into the treatment room with me and held my hand every step of the way, as I wasn’t allowed to be put asleep.

I can honestly say it is the worst pain I have ever experienced, it’s unbearable. 

4 times they managed to get into the bone but unfortunately couldn’t reach any marrow.. after the 4th attempt in the bone and me screaming in pain he called it off, said it wasn’t fair to put me through it any longer.

I went back to my room and just cried and cried at the pain, and how it wasn’t successful.

About 2 hours later the consultant came back and said I did the best I could handled as much as I could and sometimes it’s too much for people and just can’t happen (it helped knowing that it doesn’t work for everyone) 

He told me to spend the night in hospital and he will have to get bloods off me in the morning and send them off instead, he said it doesn’t make a difference just that bloods take a little longer to come back where as bone marrow biopsy can be a quicker result.

I didn’t get any sleep that night but I’m going to move swiftly on...

Next day a nurse came in around 9:30am to take my blood, it managed to go through the wire but stopped at the tube, my blood just didn’t want to come out (turns out that is possibly because of the white cells) they tried in my arm again and still nothing, then tried my hand and she still couldn’t get any blood.

So a man came in to try, and he managed to get some!

A women came in and said “I need this blood quick as the van for Christie’s is leaving in 5 minutes” Luckily I knew that Christie’s was a cancer hospital in Manchester.

So when one of the key nurses came in I asked her straight, as when you google “bone marrow biopsy” it shows up 3 different types of Cancer.

So I asked if they are testing for Cancer and she told me because I asked that they are doing some tests as it can be a possibility 

Obviously it upset me, but I didn’t let it bother me to much.. as no one knew what it was yet ! So I had to tell myself not to let it get to me and not worry to much about the whole Cancer situation till I knew 100% 

I got to go home that evening !!

The consultant booked me an appointment for Friday morning to speak with him whether  or not the results are back or not he wanted to have a talk and then booked me for some bloods while I was there.

I’m my next post/blog I will be talking about Friday 13th April the day I found out that I am now Battling Blood Cancer 

CML - Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia, a rare case of Leukaemia.

So for all who want to read my journey or with anyone suffering with Leukaemia know your not alone and can read on my blog to hear my journey and I hope it helps people to know they’re not alone, it certainly helped me being open and writing my experience and how I have come to find out, in such a short space of time!

Leanne xx